Many types of industrial vehicles, such as motorized fork lifts used in and around warehouses for moving material and merchandize, utilize electrical motors which are powered by electrical batteries. It is normally more expedient to exchange the batteries when they need recharging instead of recharging the battery in the vehicle since this would require the vehicle to be out of use during recharging. Due to the large size and weight of the industrial batteries it becomes an expedient to provide a cart vehicle for transporting the batteries during exchange.
One attempt to provide a battery cart for transporting these batteries includes a wheeled base platform and an elevator platform carried thereon having a plurality of platform rollers. One such device is manufactured by Sackett-Chicago Inc., of Schaumburg, Illinois. The elevator platform is normally operated by a jack and a cable and winch arrangement is provided for pulling the battery onto the elevator platform when loading from an adjacent storage platform. During unloading from the cart, the battery is pushed manually. Due to the large size and weight of the batteries they are susceptible to uncontrolled manual handling which can result in the battery or cart becoming off balanced. If the battery is rolled too suddenly onto the battery cart, sudden acceleration of the cart backwards can result when the battery hits the back of the cart. When brakes are utilized on the cart, such uncontrolled rolling of the battery onto the cart can cause tipping of the cart. In the event a battery should fall or drop onto the floor during manual handling thereof, cracking of the battery case and spillage of chemicals can occur resulting in property damage and/or personal injury. Brakes are also not satisfactory for preventing any relative movement between the battery cart and the storage rack when a battery is moved therebetween. If the brakes should accidentally release, the battery may possibly be unbalanced either over the cart or storage platform causing accidental damage.